Posted By Sean Grimm On September 10, 2013 @ 2:31 pm In Football | 4 Comments

[1]Brent Grimes was one of the pieces brought in this past off-season to help revamp the Dolphins’ defensive unit. After battling health issues over the last few years, Grimes and the Atlanta Falcons parted ways, paving the road for Miami to give the veteran cornerback a chance with a one-year deal.

And after Miami’s dominating performance against Cleveland, Grimes was just happy to get back into game action.

“It felt good,” Grimes said in an interview with The Finsiders[2]. “I haven’t played a full game in a while, and I guess you could say it was a final step of rehab. I got through a whole game and it was cool.”

Miami’s defense picked off Brandon Weeden three times and also came up with six sacks. However, Grimes said there’s plenty of room for improvement moving forward.

“You don’t want to play your best game in the first game,” he said. “We got some things to work on, but [there’s] definitely some things to feel good about.”

Perhaps the area Kevin Coyle’s group can be most proud of was that of third down. The Dolphins allowed the Browns to convert on third down just once all afternoon—on 14 tries.

“You know if you can get off the field as a defense, that’s big,” Grimes said. “It demoralizes the offense, it makes the defense feel real good and it pushes your offense right back on the field. So it was great. 1-for-14, that’s an incredible day.”

Takeaways were also of course huge, considering the emphasis Joe Philbin has placed on the turnover battle throughout training camp. Grimes attributed the interceptions to both play-making ability and communication.

“Nolan [Carroll]’s was real nice,” Grimes said. “He tracked the ball on the deep throw. That was a nice pick. And then Dimitri [Patterson], especially his first one, when the ball was tipped—that took a lot of concentration and he made a great play. And that’s what you need to do in this league because a lot of times, you got to go make your plays when they present themselves. Nolan did and Dimitri did twice.

“That’s a huge part in secondary play—communication. A lot of big plays in this league is a mistake—a communication mistake.”